THEY say all you need is love — and having practiced psychiatry for 16 years, I can say it’s at the center of the biggest question people struggle with: Have I found love? In my life, have I been really, truly loved? So many of us are told in childhood that we are loved —...
EMPATHY — the capacity to feel the emotions of others as one’s own — is the glue that binds people. It’s the psychological software that allows us to worry about a friend’s economic troubles across the country or cry at a movie. It’s also one major reason humans extend themselves …
I have written before that there is no original evil left in the world; everyone is just recycling pain. Ariel Castro was, of course, wrong when he claimed, bizarrely, Thursday that there was “harmony” in the house where he kept three women hostage, repeatedly beating and raping them. But he …
In an age dominated by quick fixes, e-mail and Twitter, it’s easy to keep wearing masks that make us strangers not only to one another, but also to ourselves. What’s the antidote to this kind of estrangement? Introspection. These questions are the beginning of a journey that can reintroduce you …
